It’s vital now more than ever that disabled people know that our voices hold power, and with collective action, we can fight for change. Without disabled people protesting and standing for what’s right, we wouldn’t have the right to work, live independently, use public transport and be supported by the state in the first place. The government likes to act like these were freedoms graciously afforded to us, but they were all hard-fought for.

Now, thanks to the cruel cuts, many of these freedoms could be rolled back, many disabled people won’t be able to afford or have the extra care to live independently. It’s also estimated that  these cuts will affect 280,000 people already in work.

While our history is vitally important, so too is knowing not only how to fight now, but that there is a fight to join at all. The welfare cuts have left many disabled people feeling isolated and like there is no way for them to fight back, but as the second half of my book discusses, disability rights actions aren’t a thing of the past.

Since the cuts were announced, Disabled People’s Organisations have been working flat out to ensure that disabled people are heard. And not just in huge rallies around the country thanks to Crips Against Cuts and Disabled People Against Cuts, but also online too as many disabled people can’t protest in person.

Disability Rebellion has emerged and hosted numerous online actions. The remote arm of CAC even took down the DWP server for an afternoon back in March with a mass “message bombing” campaign. As a co-founder of Taking The PIP, I helped rally over 130 well-known disabled people to call on Starmer to stop the cuts.

Successive governments have tried their hardest to turn the public against disabled people, but we refuse to be voiceless and go down without a fight. Only by learning where we’ve been do we learn how to keep going. While my book covers over 100 years of disability rights battles, the fight is far from over, and we need as many disabled people as possible to fight alongside us.

Rachel Charlton-Dailey is a journalist and disability rights campaigner who is part of the ‘Taking the PIP’ campaign. Her new book, ‘Ramping Up Rights: An Unfinished History of British Disability Activism’, is out next week (C Hurst & Co, £14.99)